


Sleepwalker

by hazmatter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Depression, Draco Malfoy Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Eating Disorders, Harry Potter Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Seventh Year, M/M, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Sleepwalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 20:25:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17629088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazmatter/pseuds/hazmatter
Summary: After the war, the survivors were encouraged to come back to Hogwarts and finalize the last remaining strands of their magical education. Many students come back, including Harry Potter, his friends, and his old nemesis Draco Malfoy. Although they don't hate each other anymore, there is a lot remaining between the two wizards.After a dangerous but eventful night in the Astronomy Tower, the two boys start something they never thought would happen between the two of them.





	1. Chapter I: astronomy tower

Harry started sleepwalking some time after the war ended. Images of his friends being tortured and dying would swarm his mind for hours a night.

He heard their screams, echoing in his mind as he curled up in his bed in Gryffindor tower, begging himself not to make a sound. A few times Ron has caught him and tried to talk to him about them, but Harry can't discuss it. He just can't do it.

He hadn't slept properly in weeks, and all he wanted was to lay down and sleep peacefully for once. It wasn't until a few days before our story starts that he had started sleepwalking. He started small, just roaming the circle room, mumbling to himself until one of his roommates woke up and put him back to bed.

Then he started getting more adventurous and made it downstairs to the common room. There he almost set his hand on fire trying to reach into the fireplace for Sirius. Hermione came running down the stairs, yelling at him to stop whatever he was doing.

He had burned his fingertips, but it was getting more and more difficult to contain him in the Gryffindor common room.

~

Harry's fingers still hurt. It was just the tips that were burned, but he couldn't hold his wand as tightly as he usually did and writing with a quill was simply impossible. His three middle fingers were burned up to the first joint and around his fingernails. His pinky was barely touched, and his thumb not at all.

He reckoned that if he even had fingerprints left that they'd be scarred to the point where he could commit a crime in the muggle world and get off without a scrap because there wouldn't be good enough prints to connect him to the crime.

Harry found himself wondering when he started thinking about the muggle world so much. He thought it must've only been a few weeks.

This world of magic had entranced him since he was 11 years old, yet he somehow missed the normalcy of it. He wasn't sure why and was sure that he would shake that feeling before the end of the day even.

"Harry," said another student.

Harry didn't even hear him. His eyes had glazed over as he seemed to be drifting to sleep right there.

He was supposed to be making a potion, and professor Slughorn was on the opposite side of the room checking on Hermione's and Ron's potions. Harry was late to class and that was why he didn't get to sit with his friends.

"Harry," the other student repeated.

Harry flinched, his eyes clearing and his unfinished potion that was about to boil over came back into focus. He got to his feet, nearly knocking his stool over, and pulled the cauldron off the flame.

"What the hell are you doing, Potter?" Draco Malfoy commented from the other side of the table.

Harry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "I honestly don't know Malfoy," he muttered and dumped his potion out into a sink. There was only water and a few herbs in it so it wasn't a huge waste anyway. He refilled it and restarted the potion.

~

Draco Malfoy was worried.

The bags under Harry's eyes were getting darker and darker as the days passed. He could barely stay awake in any of his classes, even potions! Harry loved potions, yet he was dozing off while waiting for it to even come to a boil.

He noticed it a few weeks ago that Harry was losing a lot of his usual energy. It wasn't quidditch season, but usually during nonseason months, Harry still practices, but Draco couldn't remember the last time he saw Harry on a broom.

Not that he was paying attention, he'd say if he told you that he was worried, which was what happened with Pansy Parkinson, a close friend of his.

"You sound like you have a crush on him," she teased the tall blond, hoping to get a rise out of him.

"No, I don't! He saved my life, that's all," Draco muttered, glancing around him at the faces of fellow Slytherins who sat around him who had looked up when he yelled. It was dinner time, and people were still filing into the Main Hall. A glare from Draco made them all turn their heads; he hadn't been exactly nice to first-years, so some people believed he was still the same person he was before the war.

Others, especially those who were there for the war, knew that it was his own way of coping with what happened.

A lot of horrible memories flooded everyone's minds regularly, so they all knew that sometimes you can't handle a first-year who doesn't understand what upperclassmen went through.

"Just because he saved your life, doesn't mean you don't have a crush on him," Pansy laughed at her friend as she took a bite of her food. She found the whole thing hilarious.

"Shut up Pansy," Draco spit out as he shoveled his own food into his mouth. He watched as Harry, Hermione and Ron walked down the center of the Main Hall and sat in the middle of the Gryffindor table.

Harry looked completely miserable as he slowly ate some food, practically dozing off at the table. From where he sat, he could see the worried expression on Hermione's face, but she wouldn't ask him in the main hall. Harry didn't like to discuss it in public, even if he knew just how tired he looked.

Not that Draco has been listening to their conversations whenever he could and happened to stumble upon a moment where she did try to question him about it, no, definitely not.

He'd never admit to it, but of course, he had done it. He wasn't sure when he started really caring about Harry, but it had completely blindsided him. He spent a lot of his day thinking about Harry Potter, and it was making Draco lose his mind.

Draco was getting frustrated with what was happening and stood from the table. He had barely eaten, but he couldn't force himself to eat anymore.

That was his own issue after the war, eating. Everyone had their own, whether it be sleep like Harry or eating like Draco, there was an array of issues among survivors. It was to be expected with such an array of hurt and death that plagued the castle.

"I'll be in the common room," he muttered as he quickly left the dining hall.

~

Harry watched Draco stand, leaving a plate of food barely touched in front of him, and leave the hall. Harry had noticed that whenever he saw the remainder of Draco's dinner, it was barely touched.

He had been too tired as of late to really be fully aware that it was at every meal, but he could assume it was.

Harry got to his feet and followed Draco out into the hall. There wasn't a lot of people on the stairs as Harry followed Draco in his descent to the dungeons.

"Draco?" Harry said, part of him wishing that Draco wouldn't hear him, and the other part of him wishing that he would. The latter part of him was pleased when Draco froze and looked up at Harry, who stood on a staircase above him.

"Yeah?" Draco said, his voice thin and quiet too. There was a tension between the boys, one so fragile that it could be shattered with even a simple movement. It was the tension that happens right before a big event occurs, but neither boys knew that at the time.

"Are you okay?" Harry stepped down a few more stairs, looking into Draco's eyes with worry.

"Go back to your friends Potter," Draco said bitterly and turned away from the boy with the lightning scar. He couldn't admit to Harry that no, he wasn't okay, and he knew that Harry wasn't either.

Harry ran down the stairs and grabbed Draco's hand. He had a large palm and long fingers, and Harry loved how it fit with his own. He shoved the thought away and looked into Draco's eyes.

"You can tell me you know, what's wrong," Harry said, his voice filled with promise.

First and foremost, Draco Malfoy was impulsive. He very rarely thinks of the impacts of his actions and simply does them anyway. That's what happened on the staircase that day when Draco grabbed Harry by the sides of his face and pressed their lips together.

Harry's hand came to rest lightly on Draco's chest as they stood there for a moment, their eyes closed and their lips pressed together.

It was an innocent kiss; no fighting for dominance, no tongue, just a simple peck essentially. Except for those two boys, it wasn't so simple.

The blond pulled away, his silver eyes staring into the green eyes in front of him, as a sense of panic swept over him. What had he done? Why had he done that? There was no logical reason for it, but he had done it and there was no going back.

He took his hands off of Harry's face and then ran. He took off down the stairs and hid away in the dungeon.

Harry was stuck on the stairs, his fingers running over his lips. 'What the hell was that?' he thought incredulously.

Draco Malfoy had just kissed him, and Harry had no idea what to do. The staircase began to move under him, and Harry braces himself by placing his hand on the banister. His mind was trying to wrap around what had happened, but he was so tired that he could barely remember the way back to his own tower.

He did find his way back though, and soon enough he was laying in his bed, once again running his fingers over his lips, his mind filled with a certain blond hair, silver-eyed Slytherin.

He wasn't sure when he fell asleep, but he knew it was late. He'd never forget when he woke up though.

~

Draco couldn't sleep after what had happened with Harry. His nerves felt like they were constantly firing and Draco couldn't even sit down for more than a minute.

Everyone had gone to bed when Draco decided to take a walk around the halls. Seventh years were given special privileges this year, so they could be in the halls after curfew. Especially if the teacher that was catching you knew you were in the war because it gave you a certain advantage when it came to teachers because you fought to save this place.

Draco began the long ascent to the astronomy tower, a place which holds the memory of the man Draco helped kill. Even with the bad memories, it was a place that calmed Draco.

It was detached from everywhere else, a place of solitude, and if you sat on the edge and looked around, it was like nothing else mattered. Just you at that moment as your feet get cold through your shoes and the wind blows your hair in funny looks.

Draco was extremely surprised to find someone else at the top of the tower; standing at the edge, dressed in red pajamas was the boy with the lightning scar. He was shaking, either from fear or the cold, it was impossible to tell.

"Don't do it," Harry mumbled, tears spilling from the corners of his closed eyes. "God, don't take him from me! He's the only family I have left! Please!" Harry screamed, stumbling closer to the edge. There was no railing to catch him, and there was no way anyone could survive that drop.

"Harry," Draco said, "Harry, what the hell are you doing?" He stepped forward and gently wrapped his hand around the back of Harry's pajama shirt. Draco had no idea what was going on, but his nerves shook him to the core as he thought of the possibility of Harry falling off the tall tower.

"Sirius... don't go... please..." Harry sobbed, his eyes still closed, and it made Draco's heart break in his chest. He still didn't know what was going on, but he knew that he had to get Harry away from the edge. Once he was away, Draco could talk to Harry; he just had to get him back from the edge before he got seriously hurt.

"Sirius!" Harry screamed, lunging forward and quite nearly throwing himself off of the tower. Draco grabbed Harry's waist just in time and kept him from falling.

"Harry, Harry listen to me. Whatever is going on, it'll be okay. Sirius isn't here. It's just me and you," Draco said, trying to keep the sleeping savior from falling. It was then he realized that Harry hadn't opened his eyes this entire time. "Are you fucking sleepwalking? Holy shit."

That's when everything got a lot worse. Harry, still completely asleep, suffering from the nightmares that had plagued him, grabbed Draco by the collar, and as he was still in his school robes, he had a lot of fabric to grab onto. He dragged Draco in front of him, his eyes barely open, but obviously recognizing that he was a person in his hands. He just didn't realize it wasn't who he thought it was.

Harry held him back, leaning him over the edge of the astronomy tower. Draco's feet slipped and collided with Harry's, but Harry's stayed perfectly still. Draco's hands were grabbing onto any part of Harry that he could, desperately clinging for his life.

"Harry! Harry, listen to me! Wake up!" Draco yelled, fumbling trying to get back onto stable ground. He was taller than Harry, and although he was a lot thinner than him, he knew that Harry wouldn't be strong enough to hold him for long. Especially without sleeping properly in a long time.

"Jesus Christ, wake the fuck up Harry!"

Harry's eyes snapped open. They were blurry and scared. He had absolutely no clue what was going on. One moment he's watching Sirius die over and over again on a loop, and the next he was nearly choking Draco Malfoy above a drop that's well above anything remotely survivable.

Harry stumbled backward, pulling Draco towards him. Of course, he lacked basic coordination after such a disorienting dream that he tripped over himself and pulled Draco down on top of him. Good thing was that Draco was safe now that he wasn't so close over the edge, the bad thing is that he was now trapped under a seriously pissed off Slytherin.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You nearly fucking killed me!" Draco yelled, anger rippling across his features and throughout his silver eyes. Harry tried to speak but found that no words could explain how sorry he felt for doing that to the boy in front of him.

"I come up here, stop you from fucking tossing yourself off this goddamn tower, and then you try to toss me off of it?! Is that how you thank people? You kill them?!" Draco's body was flooding with adrenaline and it was fueling his anger alongside the frustration with all the confusion in regards to their kiss from early.

"No! It was an accident! I didn't know what I was doing, I swear! I'm sorry!" Harry yelled, still extremely disoriented from what had just happened. So many emotions and feelings were flooding through his body at that moment that he had no idea how to handle any of this.

"You're damn right you're sorry," Draco said. He had been leaning over Harry, his hands on each side of his head, but now Draco sat, but was still seated on top of the brunet.

"What the hell had been going on with you? You were screaming like a lunatic, not to mention the fact you were practically out cold while you held me over the goddamn edge." Draco sneered, looking down at the green-eyed boy with frustration. He didn't take kindly to someone trying to kill him while they were asleep.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered, sitting up as Draco was currently sat on his upper thighs.

It took a few minutes of the two boys sitting in silence for Draco to calm down enough to speak without yelling. "What's going on? What was all that?"

"They're just nightmares," Harry muttered, looking past Draco's head and into the night sky.

"They're a lot more than just some nightmares. You do realize that you're in the astronomy tower right? I assume that you walked all the way here in your sleep." Draco said, looking down at Harry. Apparently, Draco's worry was in the right place, some pretty horrible stuff was happening to the boy with the lightning scar and not a lot of people were noticing it.

"At least I didn't hurt myself again," Harry said as he rubbed his eyes once more. The cold wind was drying them out and he didn't have his glasses on. He couldn't see that well and wouldn't doubt if he got lost on the way back to his own tower.

"Again? What the hell do you mean again?" The blond questioned, staring into the face of the boy who simultaneously put his life in danger but then saved it only moments ago. Of course, it didn't actually count as saving, because he was the one who put him in that position in the first place.

Harry held up his hand with the burned fingertips. "I tried to put my hand into the fireplace two nights ago." Draco grabbed his wrist and brought his hand close to his face.

"Don't these hurt?" Draco asked as he looked over the burned fingers, and took note that Harry didn't really have any fingerprints left on his left hand. They had been burned off by the flames.

"All the time, but Madame Pomfrey has been so busy with the sick kids that I didn't want to bother her with something so minor," Harry explained, watching Draco's face as he maneuvered Harry's hand to get a better look at the burns in the poor lighting.

"These are pretty serious burns Harry, you really should go see her. She'd have you healed a lot sooner than your body can heal. That way, you wouldn't have to deal with the pain," Draco said, his voice filled with sincerity. He really did care about how much pain Harry was in, not just physically, but emotionally too.

Neither of the boys had realized that Draco was still sitting in Harry's lap, but the position didn't seem to be bothering either of them. Maybe because Draco was warm, and Harry was freezing in his thin pajamas. Maybe.

"I'm used to the pain," Harry muttered, and he honestly wasn't sure why he thought he could say anything without Draco hearing him. He was literally sitting in his lap.

That was when Harry realized that the blond boy was still on top of him and that neither of them had tried to move away from each other. He had no idea what was between them right now, but he knew that once this moment ended that it most likely was never going to happen again.

The blond took Harry's uninjured hand in his and intertwined their fingers. It was innocent, something that was meant to be comforting, but it ignited something in the boys. It was a promise between the two of them.

"What was your nightmare about?" Draco asked, his voice gentle and comforting. Harry had never heard that tone before from the Slytherin that was perched on his lap. It was different, calm and almost sad.

"It... Sirius kept dying, and I just... I couldn't handle it," Harry's voice broke slightly, but he refused to cry Draco had seen too much of his weakness while sitting in this very compromising position in the middle of the night.

"You'll be okay Harry," Draco said, as he wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders. It was a quick hug, and Harry barely had time to wrap his arms around Draco's waist before he got off of the brunet and left the tower.

Harry didn't sleep much after that, not like he could after those dreams, but lots of things were keeping him up. The biggest being a blond hair, silver-eyed pureblood Slytherin.

  
  



	2. Chapter II: sleepiness

It took a week for the two wizards to talk again, and when they did it was a simple exchange during potions when they ended up at the same bench again because Harry had slept in. He still wasn't sleeping right, and although his nightmares terrified him to the core, he found it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. It was making him late to a lot of classes and his professors weren't exactly happy with him at the moment. 

"Can you pass me the eye of newt?" Draco asked. Honestly, Harry had been completely avoiding Draco since that night in the tower. It had changed a lot of things for Harry, and he wasn't ready to accept them just yet. He couldn't, it was just too weird. He hadn't even told Hermione and Ron what had happened. Harry wouldn't be surprised if Hermione completely overlooked the Draco part and only paid attention to the fact that Harry almost killed himself in his sleep. She'd probably want Ron to spell him to the bed each night.

Harry passed it to the blond silently and tried to focus on his work. It was difficult though because they were sitting on the same side of the bench, and all he could smell was Draco Malfoy. He smelled fresh and had a subtle cologne that was simply intoxicating to Harry. He had no idea why he was suddenly paying so much attention to Draco Malfoy, but god did he want to just pull him back onto his lap and wrap his arms around him again.

Well, he knew that it was directly connected to the kiss and then the night in the Astronomy Tower, but Harry didn't want to accept that those things happened either. 

"Can you just talk to me?" Draco said after a few moments, as he added the eye of newt to his potion. He glanced at the brunet next to him, catching his green eyes. It was only for a second, but Harry's face softened as he looked into Draco's silver eyes. He looked tired too, light bags were forming under the blond's own eyes. Something was different between them, but neither of the boys really wanted to do anything about it. They didn't know what to do about it either. 

Harry looked away almost immediately, staring down at his hands that held a thin blade. He was just cutting up ingredients, but now he had lost his place in the recipe. "Damnit..." He muttered as he pulled his textbook towards him and tried to find his place. Draco reached forward and placed his index finger next to step 14 to indicate that was what Harry was just doing. It was a long potion, and Draco loved watching Harry focus on adding ingredients at just the right time. He used to be so graceful with it, but now he was clumsy and lost. Draco missed it. 

"I don't need your help, Draco," Harry said, as he grabbed more ingredients from the shelves behind the two boys. Neither of them had sat down on the stools the whole class, almost as if they were both preparing to run from the other if anything were to go slightly wrong between the two of them. 

"You did that night in the tower," Draco said as he took his cauldron off of the flame and called Slughorn to inspect it. 

Harry was pissed at Draco for bringing that up here, in the middle of class while there were so many people around them. Harry didn't want to talk about it, especially not here. Harry seethed as Slughorn came over, passed out endless praise to Draco for making a perfect rendition of the potion, and expressed disappointment in the fact that Harry's wasn't even halfway done. Slughorn wasn't exactly the type of person to degrade a student, but the class was almost over and there was no way that Harry was going to finish it. 

"No, I didn't," Harry spit out as he grudgingly continued the potion that he didn't want to make. He didn't want to do anything really, except sleep. He was so tired, and he was starting to resemble a ghoul. The bags under his eyes were huge and dark, and his cheeks had begun to hollow out from exhaustion. He really needed to sleep for 14 or so hours before he felt even remotely okay again.

"Did you want me to just let you throw yourself off the edge? Really? How stupid can you be in regards to your own life?" Draco said, his voice deep and angry too. He picked up his bag and slid his potion textbook into it. Slughorn had told him he was free to leave early as he was the first student to get it done perfectly. Everyone else was making final adjustments around the two seething wizards who looked as if they were about to kill each other. 

"Considering I almost killed you, you should've just let me jump," Harry said, giving up on his potion. He dumped it out in a nearby sink that was specifically spelled to handle messed up potions and went over to talk to Slughorn about another time that he could come back and remake the entire potion. They decided Friday, which was in three days, after Harry's last class was the best time, and when Harry looked back at his bench, Draco was gone. Only a note in front of Harry's seat was left in his wake, and when Harry walked over to read the parchment, he was surprised to find only a few words inscribed across it in green ink.

'I'd  never let you die' was written perfectly across it, and Harry had no idea how to feel about the note that the Slytherin had left him.

~

Draco was having severe déjà vu as he followed a sleeping Harry throughout the castle. He had been doing it every night since he found the boy with the lightning scar at the top of the Astronomy tower. It reminded Draco distinctly of all the times that he followed Harry around the castle trying to catch him doing things that would get the shorter wizard into trouble. Now that he looked back at himself, he was just jealous of all the special attention that the Boy Who Lived received for simply surviving a curse that tried to kill him when he was a baby. 

Draco didn't feel that way anymore, and he would hate to ever feel jealous of Harry Potter again, the boy who was suffering and nobody but a few noticed that he was. Everyone else wanted to either be him for the glory or refused to believe that there was anything wrong with the boy who had saved the wizarding world by killing the dark wizard Voldemort. Draco thought it was bullshit, and he wouldn't be surprised to find out that Harry felt the same way as he did on the subject.

The blond had spent most of his nights making sure that Harry didn't hurt himself like he had tried to do at the top of the tower. It had been a week now, and Draco was absolutely exhausted from doing it, but he knew he had to do it because nobody else could. No one else knew that he was getting out of the common room in the middle of the night. 

At first, Draco couldn't figure out how he even managed that, but it was easy enough to figure out that the Fat Lady slept like a rock and that all Harry had to do was push the painting out of the way and step out. Half the time the Fat Lady would wake up, realize her painting was open, and then closed it. She probably thought she did it in her sleep, and never suspected that a student was slipping out in the middle of the night without anyone noticing. Everyone except Draco though, who sat two stories up, watching the door, waiting for the sleepwalker to emerge from his common room.

Then when the sleeping green-eyed boy slipped through, he followed behind him, listening to his distraught mumbling and even scared screams. 

It would be one of the nights where he screamed. The castle was nearly silent, and Draco found himself in the field where they first started quidditch lessons back in first year. The Slytherin hadn't been out here in so long, and he had never been here at night, so it was a weird experience seeing this place. He could hear the quiet flights of a couple of owls who must've come from the Owlery, but otherwise, there was no other noise than Harry's crying.

Draco wanted to go to him, talk to him, and hopefully stop his tears, but he knew he couldn't. Harry was pissed at him, especially after what happened in class today, and if he woke up to Draco being there, the blond didn't want to know what would happen.  

He watched Harry from the archway, protected from the cold wind, but still able to keep an eye on the other boy. Draco wasn't sure what possessed him to follow the Boy Who Lived Twice around the entire castle in the middle of the night, but here he was, doing it anyway. He wasn't going to gain much from following a sleepwalker around, but he couldn't stop himself from doing it every night. He was terrified that Harry would climb back to the astronomy tower and throw himself off for real this time. 

Then he started screaming.

"Don't! Don't kill him!" Harry yelled as he stumbled around the yard. He seemed to be following his dreams around, and they kept him spinning in place. "Draco... Don't move, please... Don't do it!"

Draco jolted in his spot under the arch. Was he killing someone in his dream? Was he dreaming of Dumbledore's death? He inched closer, frozen to the core that he might've been killing someone that Harry cared about in his dreams and causing so much pain. How many times had Draco come into his dreams? How many times had he  _ killed _ someone in one? Draco didn't know if he even wanted to know the answer.

Draco's mind was racing as he continued to walk towards the other wizard, who was facing him now, but his eyes were squeezed shut as tears dripped out of the corners. "Don't do it... He doesn't deserve to die, not like this, not ever..." 

Whoever Draco was killing in his dream sure meant a lot to the brunet, and Draco found his heart cracking at the sight of the boy screaming for the dream version of himself not to kill a loved one. Draco turned to leave, as he couldn't bear to hear his crying anymore. He understood now why Harry didn't want to talk to him... He saw him as a murderer. 

He was just about to run back into the building, hoping that he wouldn't cry over something as trivial as what Harry Potter thought of him. 

"D-Draco..." Harry whispered, his voice completely shattered. The blond looked back at the sleeping boy, wondering how on earth he could go through so much pain in his sleep and not wake up. It seemed impossible, but it was happening right in front of him. 

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you... She was too strong... She was just too strong, I'm sorry Draco." His voice was broken, simply and utterly destroyed. Physically, he had screamed his throat raw, but emotionally, he was broken too. 

Draco's mind spun. His brain was running like lightning, possibilities swarming his mind about the dream that Harry had. He was the one who was dying? Who had killed him in Harry's dream? Why did Harry care if Draco died? None of it made sense to him, and he decided it was time to wake Harry up. This had gone on long enough. 

He walked up to Harry, placed both hands on Harry's shoulders and jostled him around a little. When Harry continued to mumble apologizes to the dream-Draco, the blond wizard decided to be a little more physical with him. He lightly slapped each side of his face until Harry's green eyes opened, glistening with the tears that had just spilled down his face, and he stumbled a little. "Draco...?" Harry said, his voice hoarse from screaming and crying. The Boy Who Lived Twice looked like he was about to pass out on the ground from exhaustion. 

"Yeah, it's me," Draco said softly, as he rested his forehead against Harry's in relief. Now that the brunet was awake, he wasn't being tormented by his horrible dreams. It was something that Draco found himself grateful for. Harry sighed into the contact, grabbing onto Draco's forearms for support. He was so incredibly tired, and he just needed to sit down. 

His legs began to give out, and Draco held onto him as he lowered the shorter boy to the ground. "I'm so tired..." Harry muttered, his eyes already slipping closed once more. 

"It's okay, Harry... You're safe, I'm right here."

Harry rested his forehead on Draco's collarbone, gripping his cloak tightly in his hands. He was so worn out that he hadn't even realized that the two boys were outside in the brutal wind and that he wasn't even wearing shoes. He just slipped right back to sleep in Draco's arms.

It was obvious to Draco that Harry hadn't gotten actual sleep in such a long time that Harry's body was quite literally ready to give up. He was passed the point of exhaustion, and Draco knew that he needed to do something for the boy who was now curled into his chest for warmth, frowning slightly in his sleep. "Please don't wake up and hit me," Draco muttered as he wrapped one of his arms around Harry's back and the other hooked under his knees. He lifted Harry off of the ground and headed back towards the castle.

Draco began to walk to the nurse's office, knowing that if anyone could help Harry get some proper sleep, it would be Madam Pomfrey. Draco found himself wondering what he would do if she wasn't there because he wasn't sure where her quarters were and she had always been in the nurse's office during the day so she wasn't exactly difficult to find. Thankfully, when he pushed the large door open with his shoulder, he found her sat at her desk to the right, rifling through parchments and novels panicked, most likely trying to find a cure for the illness that had been going around the third years. From where he stood, he could tell there was at least 6 sick students in the very last beds, probably to try to limit the contamination to other students who came into the room. 

She looked up at the wizards, her eyes widening in shock. "Goodness, what happened?!" She cried as she shot from her seat. There was nothing worse than seeing a student being carried to the office in the middle of the night while they are passed out. She ran towards the duo, looking over Harry frantically.

"Sh! He's just sleeping, he's okay for the most part," Draco whispered to the short woman in front of him. Ever since Draco had shot up in height again, everyone around him just seemed so much shorter than he was, even if a couple of months ago they were close to his previous height. 

"What do you mean 'for the most part'?" She asked as she placed her hand on Harry's forehead and scowled at the Slytherin who was holding him. "He's freezing."

"I found him outside, dressed exactly like this," Draco explained as he lifted Harry up higher into a better position and walked to the closest bed. Walking here wasn't so bad, but just standing there, Draco had realized that Harry isn't exactly light. "He's been sleepwalking and having night terrors, for  _ months. _ " Madam Pomfrey went to the other side of the bed and began to tuck Harry under the thin covers. Harry had shivered the entire way here, and he still was under the beige sheets. 

Madam Pomfrey pulled out her wand and cast a warming charm on the sleeping Gryffindor. It took a few moments, but Harry slowly stopped shivering and sighed into the blankets. 

"Can you help him sleep?" Draco sat at the foot of Harry's bed and looking towards the nurse before him. His silver eyes pleaded with her because Draco was helpless when it came to helping Harry with this. Madam Pomfrey nodded and walked towards Draco. She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly at him.

"He'll be here for a while I think, sleeping off all that exhaustion. He should be okay," she explained as she walked towards the nearest cupboard and pulled out a deep maroon blanket. It was perfect for the Gryffindor's seeker, and she laid it across him for extra warmth. Then she went into her office, a small room that was built off of the room they were in, and she came back with a small violet vile. She spun the cap off, which had a dropper attached, and took a small amount of the warm amber liquid into the thin glass tube. She used the dropper to place three drops of the potion into Harry's mouth, and almost immediately, Harry licked his lips and closed his mouth. 

The stress lines on his face began to fade as his facial expression softened. He sipped into a deeper sleep, one hopefully without night terrors. 

"Now get to bed, it's late and you have class in a few hours." Madam Pomfrey shooed the blond from the room, who quickly thanked her and began his descent to the dungeons. Checking the time on the clock in the common room, Draco figured he could get about four hours of sleep before he had to get to class, and that was enough for him. He stripped off his robes and slipped on a pair of sweatpants and curled into his bed. Although he was underground, the dungeons were surprisingly warm at night.

He slipped off to sleep thinking of the boy upstairs who was probably going to sleep for a really long time. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> More tags and relationships will be added as the story progresses.


End file.
